I have been saddened by the destruction of ancient ruins in the ongoing and increasingly complex turmoil in the Middle East. We are certainly right to condemn present-day vandalism and violence by others, but we should also reject vandalism and violence found in our sacred texts.

Skull collecting is a veritable subculture. One man's macabre relic is another man's Barry Bonds seventy-first home-run ball. In the course of my investigation of this realm, I learned that Ludwig van Beethoven's skull is for sale.